Subject: Weddings and Bicyles
Hello everyone,
On Saturday Princess Victoria got married. She's up to be queen next, so it was a very big deal. There was a lot going on in Stockholm in celebration, but we didn't go. We saw lots of pictures of all the dresses and things, though. The tunnelbana was free over the weekend, which made us excited about getting investigators to church, but then we realized it was only the tunnelbana. Not the buses and not the pendeltåg, which is the train that runs by our house and the church. So, on to the exciting things.
On Monday we went to Sigtuna to celebrate Sis Wood's birthday. Sis Swenson made her a Princess Torta which is a layer cake with jam, pudding and whipped cream in the middles and covered with marzipan (fondant?). It was not as pretty as the ones in the stores, but still very impressive. When we went to eat it the next day, much to her chagrin, all of the pudding and whipped cream had leaked down the sides and been absorbed by the marzipan or the cake itself. Not quite the same experience, but it was still fun. We ate it at a picnic table by the ruins of St. Olaf's church and accompanying graveyard. Very picturesque. Then we went into St. Maria's I think it was and saw stained glass windows from the 14th century and a baptismal font from the 9th century. Everything else was old too. Very cool.
On Tuesday, the miracle of Vällingby Centrum continued. So I said last week that "we went to Vällingby to contact for about 40 minutes before an appointment and found a guy who was really excited about getting the Book of Mormon. He thanked us for it and we set up a return appointment with him." Turns out he wasn't interested. It was weird because he had actually called us a couple of times to schedule appts that fell through. Well, we didn't have his number at first so, we went one day to just see if he was there. He wasn't, but we talked to this Ghanaian woman who really liked Jesus and wanted us to come back to talk more on Tuesday. We came back on Tuesday and she wasn't there, but we contacted another guy who was there who was really interested in the Book of Mormon and said we could come back the next day. When we went back the next day, he said he was more interested in the World Cup than talking to us, so we just did some more contacting and talked to a guy who is from Portugal and speaks no English or Swedish. We gave him our number and continued on our way. About half an hour later he was still sitting there and motioned for us to come over. He wanted to know more, so I gave him an explanation of the restoration in Spanish. We met the next day to give him a Portuguese Book of Mormon. Basically, long story short, we've taught him a few times this week and yesterday he asked me how he could be a missionary and when he could get baptized. I was like, "Uhh....." I'd never been asked that before, and it was kind of surprising especially since I didn't think my Spanish was that impressive or that he was actually very serious about the whole thing. So, we'll see. We set a date for three weeks out. He doesn't smoke or drink because he's a runner. He's here training for the Olympics and is determined to be the fastest man alive (meaning, he runs the 100m and 200m). He says that people here only like him because he's fast and awesome and not because they like him, so that's why he likes hanging out with us. We didn't know he was going to be rich one day when we talked to him :)
Yesterday we took him to lunch with Niklas Salo (speaks Swedish, English and French) and Sandra (Swedish, English, Spanish), his fiancé. They served us this cool French thing where you melt cheese in little dishes in a little hot double tiered skillety-oven thing and cook meat on top. Then you eat it over potatoes. It was really fun, but I don't remember the name. So, our French and English speaking investigator was also there, so it made for an interesting experience. There were five languages flying around the room. We would teach in English, Sandra would translate into Spanish, IG would answer in Portugues, and Niklas would answer explain things in French because IG can also understand French. Quite the brain numbing experience.
Also exciting this week were our interactions with Waldemar, a Polish member in our ward. He served us some jello with fruit this week and it was one of the funniest things I'd seen in a long time. It was just like a foreign film. The jello kept falling off the spoon and he would mutter in Polish as he tried over and over to get the jello from the bowl to our plates. I couldn't help but laugh. He lives in a tiny little apartment next to a row of greenhouses just down the road from us. Sis Swenson has been having problems with her bike, so we decided to take it by on Friday for him to fix it up. On Thursday, we took the bikes 5 min away to a trail through the woods because we were short on time for running and Sis Swenson has shin splints. We hooked them to a tree and had a nice run. When we came back, I unlocked my bike, but Sis Swenson broke her key in the bike lock. Bad news! We couldn't get it unlocked with the nub we had and when we came back the next morning, the pliers just broke the key more. No good. We called Waldemar and he went with us to cut the lock off. He thought it was very strange that the bike was locked in the middle of the woods. But it was nice of him and then he even fixed her chain and gave us more jello!
I think that's it. We also met a really cool kid from Portugal on the train on Friday. Found him by a miracle too. Sis Swenson felt prompted to sit by him even though the train was empty. Very awkward, but it turned out to be really great. He was very open, so we'll see if anything ever comes of that.
Man, a lot of cool things happened this week, but I can't talk about them all because this is, as usual, very long. Well, have a good week each and every one of you. Don't forget to write. Don't forget I have a new address. :)
Love,
Amy
(see Week 9 post for her new address)
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Week 12
Subject: Miscellaneous
Hej på dig,
So, I remember this being a good week. ´The weather has turned gray again which is unfortunate. I finished decorating my planner. Don't worry. It's quite classy, complete with a spiritual touch. It's Chinese and faith themed, or at least I think it's Chinese. I got all the clippings from an Ensign article about a Chinese family. Sis Swenson let me have some dried flowers that she brought with her from Uppsala which are a nice accent.
I don't think I've talked about our Swedish class before. Or maybe I have. It has not really been a success. We had a good showing for awhile and there has only been one time where no one has showed up. The Latvian couple that used to come stopped coming when they went on vacation. Then they never came back. We don't know what happened. There was another man who used to come, Tamaz, from Georgia to practice his Swedish and English. Then he would bring people with him. Once he brought 3 other Russian speakers, so we had to do the class in Swedish, so Sis Wood taught the class because I was too embarrassed to teach Swedish in broken Swedish to people whose Swedish was just as good or better than mine. But it was ok, because she's a teacher and likes that kind of thing. Ever since the new transfer, though, we've had an average of 1.3 people in class each time because Tamaz is in Russia for two weeks. Hopefully he’ll come back, but we'll see. We had a guy come last week who was displeased that we were going over fruit and vegetables and demanded that we start over from the beginning. "Teach us the alphabet so we can read!" he said. "We are all educated people here. I have a PhD and speak 5 other languages!" So we started over with pronunciation with him telling us what to teach and how to do the examples. I don't think he knew we weren't Swedish, but he's never been back. It's mostly been a good way for us to have more contact with investigators.
We have a new investigator this week from New Jersey who came to a YSA activity last week and then Swedish class and then church. It's been kind of intense for him, sadly, so I hope he can take it. The first Swedish class it was him and 4 teachers b/c we had a couple from the ward come to do pronunciation. Then in church he got a talk on the Law of Chastity. Then, after sacrament meeting, he asked if we had any coffee, so we broke the Word of Wisdom news to him, and we took him to our English gospel principles class where he got a long lesson from our mission leader on making covenants, including baptism, and how happy they will make him even though it's hard to be a member of the church and when people become members we have to then be missionaries and try to convince people to join our church, which is hard too... I felt really bad because I felt like we were sitting there trying to convince him to get baptized. Hopefully it came across as sincere; which I'm sure it was. But, he said that if he found out that it was all true, he would get baptized. So that's good.
We've been getting new investigators again, so it's been more encouraging this week. I also am hoping the culture shock phase is over now because that was a little rough. We have seen a few miracles this week as well. We went to Vällingby to contact for about 40 minutes before an appointment and found a guy who was really excited about getting the Book of Mormon. He thanked us for it and we set up a return appointment with him. We also found another investigator when we tracted a building in Yvonne's area. We actually weren't going to, but there were noisy kids in the other one next to it, but we found 3 people who were interested in getting Book of Mormons in Arabic. Cool! We went back the next day and taught one of the ladies and we are going back next week. That's a big deal, Brian :) That was the first time I've found someone who was interested while tracting.
So, tracting and contacting. I think with tracting I almost prefer when people do the 'Sorry, not interested' and shut the door thing. Some people just stand there awkwardly listening and won't cut you off and then say they aren't interested when you could tell they weren't the whole time. It's like killing a dying animal or insect. Have mercy! It's mostly non-Swedes that do that. With contacting I'd rather that people stop and listen just a second before giving us the brush off. It's more like public humiliation when they just won't stop or listen. We aren't salesmen. We'll let you go if you don't like what we are offering. (I will at least). Contacting has made me realize how silly I always must come across when I give lame excuses to people who are taking surveys or selling something on the street.
Well, that's all this week. It's nice to know it's true. And it's always lovely to bear testimony. I discovered 3 Ne 22:13-14 I think it is. It's a lovely thought for those with families. Make your homes a safe haven. Love you all!
Amy
Hej på dig,
So, I remember this being a good week. ´The weather has turned gray again which is unfortunate. I finished decorating my planner. Don't worry. It's quite classy, complete with a spiritual touch. It's Chinese and faith themed, or at least I think it's Chinese. I got all the clippings from an Ensign article about a Chinese family. Sis Swenson let me have some dried flowers that she brought with her from Uppsala which are a nice accent.
I don't think I've talked about our Swedish class before. Or maybe I have. It has not really been a success. We had a good showing for awhile and there has only been one time where no one has showed up. The Latvian couple that used to come stopped coming when they went on vacation. Then they never came back. We don't know what happened. There was another man who used to come, Tamaz, from Georgia to practice his Swedish and English. Then he would bring people with him. Once he brought 3 other Russian speakers, so we had to do the class in Swedish, so Sis Wood taught the class because I was too embarrassed to teach Swedish in broken Swedish to people whose Swedish was just as good or better than mine. But it was ok, because she's a teacher and likes that kind of thing. Ever since the new transfer, though, we've had an average of 1.3 people in class each time because Tamaz is in Russia for two weeks. Hopefully he’ll come back, but we'll see. We had a guy come last week who was displeased that we were going over fruit and vegetables and demanded that we start over from the beginning. "Teach us the alphabet so we can read!" he said. "We are all educated people here. I have a PhD and speak 5 other languages!" So we started over with pronunciation with him telling us what to teach and how to do the examples. I don't think he knew we weren't Swedish, but he's never been back. It's mostly been a good way for us to have more contact with investigators.
We have a new investigator this week from New Jersey who came to a YSA activity last week and then Swedish class and then church. It's been kind of intense for him, sadly, so I hope he can take it. The first Swedish class it was him and 4 teachers b/c we had a couple from the ward come to do pronunciation. Then in church he got a talk on the Law of Chastity. Then, after sacrament meeting, he asked if we had any coffee, so we broke the Word of Wisdom news to him, and we took him to our English gospel principles class where he got a long lesson from our mission leader on making covenants, including baptism, and how happy they will make him even though it's hard to be a member of the church and when people become members we have to then be missionaries and try to convince people to join our church, which is hard too... I felt really bad because I felt like we were sitting there trying to convince him to get baptized. Hopefully it came across as sincere; which I'm sure it was. But, he said that if he found out that it was all true, he would get baptized. So that's good.
We've been getting new investigators again, so it's been more encouraging this week. I also am hoping the culture shock phase is over now because that was a little rough. We have seen a few miracles this week as well. We went to Vällingby to contact for about 40 minutes before an appointment and found a guy who was really excited about getting the Book of Mormon. He thanked us for it and we set up a return appointment with him. We also found another investigator when we tracted a building in Yvonne's area. We actually weren't going to, but there were noisy kids in the other one next to it, but we found 3 people who were interested in getting Book of Mormons in Arabic. Cool! We went back the next day and taught one of the ladies and we are going back next week. That's a big deal, Brian :) That was the first time I've found someone who was interested while tracting.
So, tracting and contacting. I think with tracting I almost prefer when people do the 'Sorry, not interested' and shut the door thing. Some people just stand there awkwardly listening and won't cut you off and then say they aren't interested when you could tell they weren't the whole time. It's like killing a dying animal or insect. Have mercy! It's mostly non-Swedes that do that. With contacting I'd rather that people stop and listen just a second before giving us the brush off. It's more like public humiliation when they just won't stop or listen. We aren't salesmen. We'll let you go if you don't like what we are offering. (I will at least). Contacting has made me realize how silly I always must come across when I give lame excuses to people who are taking surveys or selling something on the street.
Well, that's all this week. It's nice to know it's true. And it's always lovely to bear testimony. I discovered 3 Ne 22:13-14 I think it is. It's a lovely thought for those with families. Make your homes a safe haven. Love you all!
Amy
Monday, June 7, 2010
Week 11
Subject: French and Fanatics
Hej hej,
Weather is holding out nicely in this part of the world. This last week was really busy and weird, but it seems like a lot of weeks are weird. We usually get done with a couple of days a week with the general consensus that it was not necessarily good nor bad, just weird.
We have been developing speed tracting. I'm sure it's been done, but our idea is to knock on as many doors as we can before one of them gets answered and then talk to whoever comes out or just preach to the whole building at once if they all come out. It would be more time effective that way.
So an interesting tidbit. I didn't know about this, but apparently in the Congo and probably other parts of Africa religion has been turned into a lucrative business (and South America for that matter--a certain gold toothed minister asking for money on the bus in Guatemala comes to mind. Ok probably everywhere in the world). But when disasters or bad things occur preachers go around and tell the people that they are being punished or that this is just a type of things to come. Lots of Hell fire and damnation. Then they urge everyone to be baptized. All they have to do is give half of all they own, their car, their house to the Lord and they will be saved. People will believe and get baptized again and again. One of our investigators does not want to be baptized because of this. We've explained over and over how he can know if it's right or not, but he won't pray about it for some reason.
We had at least three lessons this week where the people were willing to let us come because they just wanted to chat and we were nice, but there was no real interest in anything we had to share with them. We made a few elderly ladies happy, though, I think.
We also went to visit a guy from Eritrea who spent an hour showing us a string of scriptures from the Bible about why Jesus Christ and God the Father are the same person. The funny thing was a lot of those same scriptures are ones we would use to prove otherwise. We kept telling him we interpret them differently. He said he was not interpreting, but just taking them literally. Semantics, my friend, semantics. I showed him Exodus 11:33 where is says God talked to Moses face to face and the first thing out of his mouth was, "But that can be interpreted...." Oh the irony. We showed him the Restoration and I bore testimony about Joseph Smith and tied it back to Stephen's vision in Acts. The Spirit was so strong and he seemed to have felt it, but he couldn't get over his own thesis enough to even consider something else. Oh, the best part about this is that when we went in, he asked if he could wash our feet. Ummmm...no thanks. Not as a sister missionary. Would have been uncomfortable. Sis Swenson has terrible warts on her feet (I had her permission to say that) because she hasn't gotten them taken care of, so we had 'her injury' as an excuse.
We had a few days this week where we just couldn't get anything to work. I had the realization that this is what it's going to be like. Event planning. Trying to get everything to work perfectly every day in an effective manner. Making phone calls, confirming appointments. Sales. Business. Doing inventory for books and other supplies. Meeting everyone's needs. Meeting goals, going hungry until you do. *Sigh* But, I was thinking today about the nature of Eternal Life and how we don't believe in Eternal Vacation. Work with no deadlines. No stress. That actually sounds nice--being productive without the negative feelings that accompany it.
We had a lesson with a guy that only speaks French this week. Interesting. A guy in our ward speaks French, but he couldn't come, so we showed a video and told him to save his thought for next time. We think. We also gave him a Swedish lesson since he was the only one that showed up for our class on Saturday. They say that's the best way to learn a new language, but it just seemed frustrating to him.
Well, life carries on. Sis Swenson's bike chain keeps falling off, but there are flowers everywhere! I need to create a tag line like Eric or Aaron. Don't forget about me from Sweden, where the children do what they want.
Love,
Amy
PS We don't actually Speed Tract. *Snap, snap* That was a joke.
Hej hej,
Weather is holding out nicely in this part of the world. This last week was really busy and weird, but it seems like a lot of weeks are weird. We usually get done with a couple of days a week with the general consensus that it was not necessarily good nor bad, just weird.
We have been developing speed tracting. I'm sure it's been done, but our idea is to knock on as many doors as we can before one of them gets answered and then talk to whoever comes out or just preach to the whole building at once if they all come out. It would be more time effective that way.
So an interesting tidbit. I didn't know about this, but apparently in the Congo and probably other parts of Africa religion has been turned into a lucrative business (and South America for that matter--a certain gold toothed minister asking for money on the bus in Guatemala comes to mind. Ok probably everywhere in the world). But when disasters or bad things occur preachers go around and tell the people that they are being punished or that this is just a type of things to come. Lots of Hell fire and damnation. Then they urge everyone to be baptized. All they have to do is give half of all they own, their car, their house to the Lord and they will be saved. People will believe and get baptized again and again. One of our investigators does not want to be baptized because of this. We've explained over and over how he can know if it's right or not, but he won't pray about it for some reason.
We had at least three lessons this week where the people were willing to let us come because they just wanted to chat and we were nice, but there was no real interest in anything we had to share with them. We made a few elderly ladies happy, though, I think.
We also went to visit a guy from Eritrea who spent an hour showing us a string of scriptures from the Bible about why Jesus Christ and God the Father are the same person. The funny thing was a lot of those same scriptures are ones we would use to prove otherwise. We kept telling him we interpret them differently. He said he was not interpreting, but just taking them literally. Semantics, my friend, semantics. I showed him Exodus 11:33 where is says God talked to Moses face to face and the first thing out of his mouth was, "But that can be interpreted...." Oh the irony. We showed him the Restoration and I bore testimony about Joseph Smith and tied it back to Stephen's vision in Acts. The Spirit was so strong and he seemed to have felt it, but he couldn't get over his own thesis enough to even consider something else. Oh, the best part about this is that when we went in, he asked if he could wash our feet. Ummmm...no thanks. Not as a sister missionary. Would have been uncomfortable. Sis Swenson has terrible warts on her feet (I had her permission to say that) because she hasn't gotten them taken care of, so we had 'her injury' as an excuse.
We had a few days this week where we just couldn't get anything to work. I had the realization that this is what it's going to be like. Event planning. Trying to get everything to work perfectly every day in an effective manner. Making phone calls, confirming appointments. Sales. Business. Doing inventory for books and other supplies. Meeting everyone's needs. Meeting goals, going hungry until you do. *Sigh* But, I was thinking today about the nature of Eternal Life and how we don't believe in Eternal Vacation. Work with no deadlines. No stress. That actually sounds nice--being productive without the negative feelings that accompany it.
We had a lesson with a guy that only speaks French this week. Interesting. A guy in our ward speaks French, but he couldn't come, so we showed a video and told him to save his thought for next time. We think. We also gave him a Swedish lesson since he was the only one that showed up for our class on Saturday. They say that's the best way to learn a new language, but it just seemed frustrating to him.
Well, life carries on. Sis Swenson's bike chain keeps falling off, but there are flowers everywhere! I need to create a tag line like Eric or Aaron. Don't forget about me from Sweden, where the children do what they want.
Love,
Amy
PS We don't actually Speed Tract. *Snap, snap* That was a joke.
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