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