This week was pretty good. Last P-day we didn't really do anything special, but it was still good. On Tuesday we tried getting everything ready to go since we both had to leave to Stockholm in the evening. A member took us out to lunch and got us pizzas. We visited a few people to say goodbye, then took two trains to Stockholm. We stayed the night with the zone leaders of the Stockholm South zone. In the morning all the trainers went to the Västerhaninge chapel, which is right by the Stockholm temple, and waited. All the new missionaries were brought in and had a meeting, but we were hidden downstairs. There were tons of missionaries there. There were 27 new missionaries, which meant there were also 27 trainers. It was fun to get to see a lot of people who I haven't seen in a long time.
Eventually they brought all the trainers in and we sat at the back of the chapel. One by one President Beckstrand called up a greenie and gave them a letter. They opened the letter, and read where their first area would be and who their trainer would be. Once they read it the trainer went up to hug them and they sat down together. My companion, Elder Dean, was third to last so I had to wait a while which was a little stressful.
Elder Dean is from Auburn, Washington, and plays violin. He even brought his violin with him. He is super good at Swedish so far and has a personality that is a lot like mine. We get along pretty well.
After the meeting everyone got their bags and went to travel to their areas. Almost all of us had to go through Stockholm central station, so there were TONS of missionaries on the train there, and all of us had suitcases as well. Luckily we had no problems getting back to Alingsås, and our ward mission leader gave us a ride to our apartment.
On Saturday we had a Christmas concert. It went pretty well. I participated in 5 different songs, which was a little hectic since we could have used a little more practice on a lot of them, but it worked out. I got to play guitar to accompany a member while she sang, and I sang in the rest. During the concert the Alingsås Lucia came and sang a few songs. Santa Lucia is an Italian saint, but it is a tradition in Sweden to have Lucia concerts, so every year there is one Lucia and a few other girls who go around and do concerts and sing three Lucia songs. So it was pretty cool to have the official Lucia at our concert. After the concert there was a TON of food for everyone.
Church yesterday went well. Elder Dean gave his introduction testimony in Swedish and did pretty well. After church there was food for everyone because there was still a TON of leftovers after the concert. And even after that we were given a big bag of bread to take home haha.
This week I learned how personal scripture study can really be a blessing to us. We were teaching a part member family, and showed them the new Christmas video. We expected to have a short discussion, but then the nonmember husband started asking a bunch of questions about how we can know Christ is the Savior and about other stuff. A lot of the stuff he was asking about was things I had read about that morning in personal study, so it was easier for me to think of how to answer him. It was a really cool experience.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Smith
Pictures!
1) Stockholm station. I don't know why it didn't load last week
2) Stockholm
3) Elder Dean and me in Stockholm station
4) The sunrise, at 9ish
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