Week 10

Subject: Jakobsberg Again

Käre familj och vänner,

So, Sister Swenson is very nice. She is from Logan, Utah, plays the viola (which she brought with her), was studying Physiology at BYU and is an amazing ballroom dancer from what I hear. She has a great enthusiasm for the work and likes to work hard. Both she and sis Wood crack their necks a lot. Not a good sign for me.

Well, I have been sick with a full blown cold since Wednesday. I thought I was safe, but I guess not. Sis Wood left it behind for me to remember her by I guess. It was good though because it gave Sis Swenson an excuse to stay home and get a feel for the area instead of just going out and working without knowing anything.

On Saturday we actually went up to Uppsala for a display that the young single adults had organized. It rained only for about half an hour, but was fairly clear the rest of the time. We kept getting caught in the pouring rain this week which was fun, but cold.

Yesterday we went to church and had no investigators there for the 4th week in a row. It was mothers day so all of the kids in the primary talked about how much they loved there mothers. All the women were crying. We got rice krispy treats and roses. They gave them to us too which was nice, but kind of funny being a missionary. "You'll be mothers too some day... " they said. We just don't think about that right now, do we?

After church we rode our bikes to Vällingby and talked to people in the plaza there. We talked to a few interesting people. Of course there were those who rudely declined to chat, those who wouldn't even look at us, those who pleasantly said, "Too bad! I'm not interested," those who stood there awkwardly not knowing how to get out of the present situation, those who would talk, but said they were already Muslim, orthodox, or something else, and those who didn't speak Swedish or English and had no idea what we wanted or why we were talking about a book. We talked for a few minutes with a young man from Bosnia whose family was killed in the civil war there. He blamed religion (clearly) and because we were missionaries, us. I've met a few people who lost their faith because of the horrible things that they have been through, but there are others who cling to their faith. He told us we were addicted to religion and that we were just pawns in a political machine. We have no choice and we need to wake up to that. That always helps me to reevaluate why I am here. I lack that motivating burning fire of testimony (it comes and goes as needed), but I always feel the calm reassurance that I'm in the right place.

We also had a long conversation with a young man who had a psychotic episode right after a car accident and is studying epistemology, I think. We asked him what the meaning of life was and he went on for 15 minutes about how we know what we know and was throwing words around like 'emic' and 'etic'. I realized it's been a long time since school and I had to switch back into that mindset. It was a very interesting conversation since a lot of what we do is epistemological. Helping people know what we know through the Holy Ghost. I wished my Swedish was better. We set him strait about a few things on our church since his knowledge was based on episodes of South Park and sent him on his way.

So to end, fun fact about Sweden. The street names here are very creative. They are more often objects than names. For example on the 541 bus we go down 'Flower King's Way' and 'Childhood Home Way'. Those maybe aren't that great, but I can't think of any others right now. Well, times definitely up. I hope you all are doing excellently well. Write me. The Church is true and we are part of a great thing.

Much love,
Syster Maxwell