This has been an interesting week. Last P-day we went to Ikea and ate meatballs for lunch. Then we went to a store called TGR, which is kind of like the dollar store, but instead of everything being one dollar it was just a lot of cheap stuff. That night we went to a YSA family home evening activity at a member family´s house, and that was a lot of fun.
On Wednesday we had to get up at 4 am to get ready. Elder Larson´s train to Stockholm left at 6, and mine left at 7 so I just waited at the station a bit. It was a little tricky getting onto the train because I had two very heavy suitcases, a backpack, a sidebag, and I also got a guitar at a second hand store a little while back so I just had that sitting on top of one of the suitcases. Luckily the train wasn´t crowded at all so I had plenty of space to get my things on. I had to switch trains once, which was also a bit tricky but it turned out well, and I made it to Linköping without any problems. When I got to the station there were two elders who are in the district who helped me and Elder Backman to get to our apartment. We had no phone because we were opening the area, but the other elders had keys that they gave us. We unpacked a little, and then went exploring. We found some maps, and found the church the old fashioned way, haha. We opened the door to the church, and an alarm started going off. Elder Kiikko, who is one of the other elders in the area, had given Elder Backman a few directions like what the code to the alarm was, but no matter what we did it wouldn´t turn off. So we started running around the church to find a phone, since we didn´t have any way of communicating with anyone. We couldn´t find a working phone, but somehow I pressed a button that got the alarm to turn off. Then we went to the train station and waited for Elder Kiikko to get back with his new greenie.
On Thursday we had district meeting in a town called Norrköping. Our district is the missionaries in the Norrköping ward and Linköping branch. We took a double-decker bus to get there. I´m pretty sure it was my first time on a bus like that, so it was pretty cool. We all went out to lunch together after district meeting, and then Elder Backman and I took the bus home. We sat in the very front on the second level, so I got some good pictures and videos. I took a time-lapse video with the iphone, and it is super cool.
We have started out with literally no one to teach, so Elder Backman and I have been doing a lot of swing bys to former investigators and contacting people in town. So the work right now is going kind of slow, but at least it gives us a chance to be all over the place and get used to the town while we´re finding people to teach.
Yesterday we had church. There were maybe 25 people there, so it is a little different from most places I have been. I have been officially designated as branch pianist, so I played the piano in sacrament meeting. It was interesting. There were four songs: One I´ve played a few times and kind of knew, one I´ve heard and maybe played once but luckily it was simple, one that I´ve only heard a few times and had a super hard time playing, and then Praise to the Man which I have played a million times. So I realized I will have to do some more practicing, haha.
This week I was looking at lds.org, and there was some article about getting to know the apostles and prophet, where there were short biographies of each of the apostles and the first presidency. It is crazy how many different backgrounds and what amazing lives each of these men has had. I just tried looking on lds.org for the article and couldn´t find it, but I would encourage everyone to get to know our modern-day prophets a bit better. I know that they really are called of God.
Have a great week everyone!
Elder Smith
Pictures!
1) This is a river right by our apartment. Linköping is a college town, so there have been some fraternity/sorority tug of wars here
2) On the bus
3) A healthy meal put together with whatever food we could find
4) Swedish houses
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