Jul och Northern Lights: 12/26/14

Hej!

     This has been a very different week, but a good one! I have P-day today, and I´m pretty sure my next one is on January 1st. I found out I am being transferred! I will be going to an area called Gubbängen, which is in the Stockholm zone. So I will be in more of a big city area, which will be interesting. My companion will be Elder Walker, who has been out just one transfer longer than me. 

     It´s kind of hard to remember everything that has happened, so I will just write what I remember. First of all, we got snow! There is about a foot of snow now, and the temperature is in the negative 10s celsius. Luckily we haven´t had to be outside too much lately. The snow plows here are really good, so the roads have been pretty clear for the most part. But in the city there are some giant piles of snow from the snowplows, and they look pretty cool. It´s like there´s a mountain in the middle of town.

     This week all of our lessons were basically just saying goodbye to our investigators and explaining that new missionaries will come by to visit them soon. Elder Stafford goes home on the 30th, and our area is being closed because so many missionaries are leaving in his group. But luckily there will still be the other two companionships in Sundsvall to keep teaching everyone.

     On Christmas Eve all six missionaries were invited to the District President´s family´s Julbord, which is basically a buffet table of Christmas foods. It was pretty fun. There were little kids running all over the place, but everything went well. There was a white elephant gift exchange, and I ended up getting a 10-pack of toothebrushes. So now I have enough to last my entire mission, haha. 

     After that we got to go over to the Branch President´s house. We got to watch Frozen with them. Three of the missionaries hadn´t seen Frozen yet, so they were really happy to finally see it. After the movie we went outside and had a snowball fight with the kids. While we were playing, somebody noticed that there were Northern lights! There were street lights and other lights where we were, so we ran into a big field full of snow where it was a better view. I had on church shoes and church pants, but somehow my feet didn´t get too wet running through deep snow, which I am very thankful for because it was about -15 degrees. The Northern lights were awesome! They weren´t super bright, but they stretched across a lot of the sky and sometimes there would be brighter strands.

     Yesterday the missionaries got together and we made a big breakfast at the church. I also got to skype home yesterday, which was really fun but also kind of weird, haha. It was weird to be on this end of the skype call, being the one away from home. Then yesterday night a member family had us over for dinner.

     I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Lately we have been teaching the lesson on the Restoration a lot, and usually when we talk about Jesus Christ, it is my turn to talk. I have gotten to tell a lot of people that Jesus Christ was not just a good man, but he was literally the Son of God, who came here to the earth and suffered and died for us. The only way that we can progress and someday live with our Heavenly Father again is through Jesus Christ and because of what He did for us. I am so grateful for my Savior and for the opportunity to grow here on the earth and to follow His example. I hope we can all remember that even though Christmas is the time of year when we most remember Christ, we need to remember Him the rest of the year as well.

God Jul!

Äldste Smith

Pictures!

1) Giant snow pile!

2) A good way to keep drinks cold

3) Christmas breakfast

4) Northern lights! They didn´t show up very well in pictures

It's Cold: 12/15/14

    This week has been pretty fun. A lot of this week it was either -5 or -8 degrees Celsius. It wasn´t too bad though. It still hasn´t really snowed here in a long time. It was supposed to snow today, but it´s raining instead. Last P-day I got my first real haircut in Sweden. Before that I´d just had Elder Stafford trim it a bit. But now it looks pretty good I think. Last Monday night we went Christmas caroling with a couple of families in the branch. We sang to some members and less-active members in the area. It was a little crazy, because everyone lives kind of spread out from each other and we had to drive in between every person we sang to. On Tuesday night we went out caroling again with some of the youth in the branch, and we sang to some investigators and a couple members. Sometimes it was funny because I don´t know the words to the Christmas songs in Swedish, so I just kind of hummed and mouthed along a lot, haha. 

     This week Elder Stafford and I were invited back to the high school to do some more presentations about America. But this time we made it about Christmas and the holiday season. It was fun to talk about American culture and compare it to Sweden. We also got to sit in on a class in between two classes we were presenting to, and watched some presentations they were doing on cities around the world. It was funny whenever it was an American city, because when they talked about the foods people eat there they would just throw out all the stereotypes, like hamburgers, American pancakes with lots of syrup, and of course lots of sugar. 

     On Saturday we did greenie splits, so it was me and Elder Bliss. He got here in October. We went contacting in the city Saturday morning, but it was almost a ghost town. And our lesson didn´t end up happening so we didn´t get to speak Swedish very much. We might try to do exchanges again sometime, but we´ll see. December is really unpredictable because there´s a lot going on. On Saturday I helped break a world record! They just finished building a huge bridge across the harbor here, and they wanted to break the world record for the longest light parade procession or something like that. So a lot of people had electric candles, and we walked across the bridge. We had to stand in line for over an hour though, and it was pretty cold. Then the bridge turned out to be 1.7 kilometers long. There were over 7,000 people there. We were all joking, because no one had ever seen so many people in one place in Sweden. 

     Saturday is also a day where people do a thing called Lucia. It is about Saint Lucia from Italy, but I think it is only celebrated in Sweden and Finland. There are girls dressed in white robes, and holding candles. Then the one in the center in Lucia, and has a crown with candles on it. Then they sing songs about Santa Lucia, who is basically a bringer of light. We got to see one at the high school before we taught classes, then we saw another in the big Swedish church in town. It was kind of a weird experience being in a Swedish church. There was a choir there and a couple soloist singers. Then in the middle this guy got up on the organ and played a song that sounded like it could be in a video game or at Disneyland, and the spotlights were moving around everywhere. But the Lucia part was good. 

     Next week is a short P-day, so I won´t be writing a big email until the 26th I think. 

     This week as a spiritual message I think I just want to talk about the importance of prayer. A lot of our investigators seem interested, but have lots of questions and expect to get logical answers from us, or an answer from the Bible that eliminates all doubt or chances of different interpretations. Basically what everything comes down to is our ability to pray with faith and real intent for answers from our Father in Heaven. As missionaries we tell people all the time that we have prayed and know that this message is true, but we can´t give them our faith. They need to pray for themselves so that they can really know if this is true. We know from Moroni 10:3-5 that this is the way the Lord has prepared for us to know if the Book of Mormon is true, if Joseph Smith was really a prophet, and by those we know that the church is true. If we pray, are faithful, and do our part (reading the Book of Mormon), then we WILL get an answer. That is a promise. So I think that is something that is important to remember. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!!

1) We hiked a hill/mountain near town. This is the sunset.

2) We were walking in the city one day and saw all these high school kids walking around the big Christmas tree and singing Midsummer songs

3) One of our cups fell off the drying rack in the middle of our daily planning

4) High school Lucia concert. They used real candles, which I don´t think would be allowed in America

Another Week: 12/8/14

Hej!

     This week didn´t have too many crazy events, but it was good. Something really good that happened was that yesterday we had church down in a town called Hudiksvall. It is about an hour drive south of Sundsvall, so there are a lot of less-active members down there. We drove down with the branch president and his 6 and 7 year old sons. His sons started getting a little crazy when they realized it was going to be a long car ride, but luckily I had a notebook and pens in my bag, so we played tic tac toe most of the way there. We had church in a member family´s apartment. At the meeting there was Elder Stafford and me, the branch president and his two kids, two less-active members, and two investigators. So it was a small meeting, but it was really good I thought. Almost everyone bore their testimony during sacrament meeting, including one of our investigators. I felt the Spirit, and I think it was one of the best sacrament meetings I´ve had, even though I couldn´t understand much. The whole time it kind of reminded me of how small the Church was at first. It started with six members, then was still relatively small for many years. Now there are over 15 million members. It´s amazing how much growth there has been in just a few years. After sacrament Elder Stafford did a lesson about scripture study, and after that we ate a bunch of Swedish Christmas food. It was Christmas bread with butter and cheese on it, some oatmeal stuff with cinnamon on it, and a drink called julmust. Julmust is a big Christmas time thing here, but I don´t think they have it anywhere in America. It´s kind of like cream soda, but a little different. 

     This week it snowed! But only a little. The other elders ding dong ditched our apartment, and left a little snowman by the door. On Saturday we were at the church, and then the elders showed up, and the sisters came pretty soon after them. We didn´t plan it or anything. So we decided to just have a coordination meeting, haha. We decided we are going to start an English conversation group as a way of fellowshipping investigators, or even just showing people that we are normal people. So that will be fun. 

     One day we were going into the city to contact, and the other elders were going to do the same thing, so we did splits for an hour. I was with Elder Bliss, who is one transfer newer than me, so it was called greenie splits. We did pretty well for being on our own. We talked to a lot of people about Christmas. One time a man said something and I had no idea what he said, but then he just walked away, so it was okay. 

I hope everyone has a great week! Be sure to share the He Is The Gift video! It is a great way to remind people that Christmas is about Christ and also to invite them to learn more about our faith in Him.

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) Elder Stafford took this while we were driving to get groceries at 9 something in the morning last week. It´s the bay that leads to the ocean

2) We were walking around one night (at maybe 5), and saw this beach so we decided to take a picture. We couldn´t figure out what was making that weird white line in the middle though. It looked kind of like fog with a light shining on it, but it was really wide. I think it´s the ocean.

3) Frozen pond! (I was careful)

4) We bought a 3 kg bag of pasta last week. Hopefully it will last until the end of December, haha

5) Snowman (I put my name tag on it for the picture)

Christmas is Coming! 12/1/14

Hej!

     This week was pretty crazy, but was good overall. On Tuesday we met with an investigator who we met only once before. He is a kind of missionary in his church, so when he texted us and said to meet him by his church to meet his friend, we thought it was pretty likely his friend was a priest who would try bible bashing. But then we got there and it was just one of his friends who goes to his church. She actually turned out to be very positive and helpful, because she speaks good English and French, so she could translate to French so that we could communicate better with our original investigator. Elder Stafford and I are hopeful she will be interested in the church, because the lesson went well.

     On Thursday we had zone training, so we took an early train up to Umeå. Most of it was about something called the Christmas Initiative. Basically it is a huge plan to help more people learn about Christ. The Church just put out a new video, kind of like the one called Because of Him that was made for Easter, except this one is about Christmas. The Church has made special Christmas contacting cards that are about this video and about Christmas.Mormon.org. Also the Church will be playing the He is the Gift video on four big screens in Times Square in New York City, and on December 7th the only ads on youtube will be for He is the Gift. I think
it´s amazing how much is going on to get this video out to people. We (as missionaries, and as members) have been challenged to share this video with as many people as possible, and use it to invite people to learn more about Christ. During the Christmas season people think about Christ more than usual, so it is a great opportunity to share the gospel with others. I think there is a lot about it in the Ensign and Liahona, with quotes from Apostles about it.

     Also, there is an article about the Church in Sweden in the Ensign!! I haven´t gotten to read it yet, but it seems cool. We had an early train home from zone training, so the zone leaders were driving our district to the train station. They had to make two trips, and I was in the second group. We were looking at the clock, and by the time the zone leaders got back to the church to pick us up, we had about 6 minutes until our train left. We said a prayer, then headed out. Pretty much every light changed to green for us, and we got there with about a minute to spare. So that was a cool experience this week.

     On Thursday night we got to go over to a member family´s house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lot of fun. The food was really good, and we got to play with the kids a lot. They weren´t too crazy, so it was better than other times we have been over there, haha. I got to help do a coloring book, and a little fishing game, haha. 

     On Friday we drove down to Hudiksvall, and had a bunch of lessons (4) with less-actives and an investigator couple. Our last lesson with the investigators was not so good, but this time it was really good. They say they know they need to get baptized, and they know the Church is true! They want to get baptized in May when it is warmer, but we invited them to pray about a baptismal date. Next week we have a special sacrament meeting down in Hudiksvall, so that will be really good. All the people who live too far away to come to church very often will be coming.

     This week I have been reading a lot in the New Testament, and I have been impressed by how the Apostles and disciples were so willing to suffer for Christ´s sake and how they stood up for their faith no matter what the consequences were. Sometimes they were delivered out of danger, but sometimes they weren´t. But in the end it was worth it for all of them. We today also face persecution sometimes because of our faith. We need to remember that it is important to stand up for what we believe in, and we will be blessed. I was especially impressed how when Peter and another apostle (I feel bad that I don´t remember who) were beaten by the Jews for testifying of Christ, that they rejoiced that they were worthy to be beaten for Christ. I thought that was a great example of being patient in tribulation and having an eternal perspective.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!!!

1) A big Christmas tree in the town square

2) Coloring

3) Super fancy member dinner. That wasn´t all we ate, the plates were just decorated fancily.