This has been an eventful week! On P-day we didn't do too much, we just spent time with the other missionaries in Göteborg. On Tuesday we had an apartment inspection. We passed, although Elder Roosendaal had to clean out the shower drain (you have to clean the shower drains here once in a while and they are pretty gross). We also got a new toaster, which was nice. That night we had a dinner appointment with a member family. All their kids started showing us the instruments they play, and one of their boys is learning trumpet so he let me try it out. It's been a super long time since I played, but I managed to play a few notes, haha.
On Wednesday we did splits with the zone leaders, so Elder Albertsen was with me in my area for a day. We did a lot of tracting and visited a few less-active members. At one point we were walking around and stopped to talk to an older woman. In the middle of the conversation she asked if either of us was wearing perfume and told us that we smelled too nice. It was an interesting conversation. We just barely missed the bus home, so we were stuck in a small town for an hour. We went and got pizza while we waited, which was fun.
The next morning I was making toast with our new toaster, and after like 20 seconds it popped the toast out. It was weird, so I pushed it back in. There was a small spark on the inside on one of the heating wires, and the toast wouldn't stay down. So I tried again, and the same thing happened. So after a few more tries, which maybe weren't so well thought out, I tried one last time. There was a big spark, and all the lights went out. Luckily only the fuse for parts of the apartment was blown out, so we could still see in the main room. After that we had district meeting. After district meeting we ate at a Chinese buffet to celebrate Elder Roosendaal going home. Then we went to go to the train home, and we realized Elder Roosendaal didn't get his bus card back after splits, so we had to wait for the zone leaders to come to the station and give it back.
On Friday I went to a trainers meeting in the mission home in Stockholm. It was kind of weird to travel there all by myself, but luckily everything worked out fine. The meeting was super good, we talked about how to help our greenies learn fast and feel prepared to be missionaries. After the meeting we went back to the subway station and made our way to Stockholm Central Station for our trains back to our areas. When we got there, there were people everywhere and it was super crowded. We found out that there was a huge wind storm so there was power lines and debris blocking the railways. Everyone going north got out okay, but a few trains going south and west were cancelled or delayed. At first my train was delayed an hour, but then it got cancelled. So there were five of us stranded there: me, Sister Harkness (who is in my district), Elder Christley, Elder Hainsworth, and Elder Purkey. We had to go to the train company's office to see if we could rebook our tickets but it was super crowded so we walked around Stockholm a bit to wait until the crowds died down. It was really really windy outside, and some stores' signs were blowing over. Then we went back to the station and waited in line. We all got new tickets for free--for the next day. We figured out places to stay, but we had to wait a while for the sisters to come pick up sister Harkness since we didn't want to leave her by herself. We all got 24-hour subway passes and the elders went to stay with the Gubbängen zone leaders. They are both from my MTC group, so it was fun to see them again.
The next morning we had transfer calls, and luckily I had my companionship's phone so I got to listen to my zone's transfers. I am staying in Alingsås with my greenie. We met Sister Harkness at the station around noon, and our replacement train was also cancelled. So we got back in line and got new replacement tickets for a few hours later. We got a faster train though, plus 100 crowns to a store to buy food. While we were waiting for that train we were watching the information board and hoping not to see another cancel, and a member came up and started talking to us. His name is Paolo, and he was visiting Europe to learn English. He was pretty nice. Then our train got in and we got on. It was delayed half an hour, but we finally made it back to Göteborg. We went to pizza after that and then Elder Roosendaal and I took the train back to Alingsås. I was exhausted after all that. I am going back to Stockholm tomorrow, so hopefully this time it will go a little smoother :)
Church yesterday was good. After church was kind of crazy, because there were multiple people who wanted to practice Christmas concert songs with me all at the same time, but it worked out.
This week I strengthened my testimony of how the Holy Ghost can direct us without us even knowing it. When I was getting ready to go to Stockholm, I was trying to decide what to bring. I thought about bringing the phone cord, since sometimes there are plug ins on the train so I could charge it. Then after a little hesitation I decided to take the wall plug as well, just to be safe. I thought I wouldn't need it since it was only supposed to be a day trip. While we were trying to figure things out I had to do a lot of calling so it was really nice to have all the stuff I needed to charge the phone and stay in contact with people.
I hope everyone has a great week! Sorry for the long email, there was a lot of things that happened this week!
Elder Smith
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