This week has been pretty good! On P-day we went to the YSA center in Gothenburg and everyone signed each others' goodbye books (kind of like how everyone signs year books but we just use notebooks). Then we went bowling! It was pretty fun, but I only got 103.
On Wednesday a member took us out to lunch before my train and we got kebab pizza. Then I took a train to Gothenburg, and got on another train heading to Stockholm. Everything went smoothly. I think I've gotten better at getting on and off of trains with two big suitcases haha. The zone leaders and Elder Banks met up with me at Stockholm Central station, and we took the train down to Västerhaninge.
Our area is Västerhaninge, a bunch of smaller towns, and then another bigger town called Nynäshamn. Since the temple is in Västerhaninge and there are a lot of members and missionaries here, a lot of people here have already heard about the Church so it can be a little tougher with contacting and tracting, so we have usually done member work in Västerhaninge and tracting kind of stuff down in Nynäshamn.
On Thursday we had district meeting. Our zone is only two districts. We have the Gotland missionaries in our district, and since Gotland is an island that is super far away, we use skype to include them so that's something unique about our district. After district meeting we all went to lunch at a place called Curry King. It was my first time having real Indian food, I think.
Yesterday went well. There are too many people here though, haha. There are 3 wards that share our chapel. Our ward is about 200 active members, which is about twice as much as anywhere else I've been so far in Sweden. We started church at 9 since we have to share the chapel. There were actually a couple of people that I've met in my other areas, so it was cool to see some of them again. After our church ended, there were tons of people in the hallway and foyer, so it was kind of crazy.
This week I was reading in Hebrews, and there was a lot of stuff that I've never really payed attention to before, but that are really good. I really liked chapter 11, because it talks about faith. Paul lists off lots of miracles and other acts of faith from the scriptures, and explains that the reason these people did these things, the reason they sacrificed and suffered, was because of faith that God had prepared something better for them, that they could have eternal life. I know it's something that is joked about sometimes, but it really is important to have an eternal perspective. What is really important to us in this life? What is the goal? Eternal life is not something we can see or fully understand right now, but we need to have faith that that is what our Heavenly Father has promised us when we live righteously.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Smith
Pictures!
1) Nynäshamn
2) In front of the temple! From left to right: Elder Banks, Sister Hatch, Sister Nielsen, me
3) We took a shortcut through the forest
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