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
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