Subject: Raindrops on Roses
Hej på er,
So, it's been a long week, but not so gut wrenching as other transfer weeks have been. It's really nice to have a dying companion because I was fairly positive I would be staying and she would be going. The week was spent loaded with appointments and trying to make the transition to next transfer. Sister Robinson was finally breaking the news to everyone that she was leaving this week. We had more than one teach that ended with, "Well, I'm leaving this week..." followed by shock from those we were teaching. Some of the outbursts of emotion surprised both of us, but it's nice to know people care. President had to go pick up the new missionaries from the airport, so he didn't call us until almost 1. We were one of the last ones to know, but I'm staying as expected, and sister Porkka, a Finnish sister who I did splits with once and also loves This American Life is coming to be my companion. I hope we have a lot of fun together and get along well.
I'm keeping this short because we have A LOT to do this afternoon and we are going to be taking the 5:55 train to Stockholm tomorrow so we can go to the temple, so it would be nice to go to bed early. I guess we'll just hit the highlights of this week. First, the Word of Wisdom lesson with A who is addicted to snus, a popular kind of chewing tobacco here. His family kept coming in and out and he would go off on tangents on how important it is to take care of our bodies and how he knows all about the body and how the woman's body is especially a temple of God because she carries children, etc. Then his dear, sweet sister came in who is very sick and takes lots of medicines which affect how clearly she thinks. Her Swedish is only ok, so she often misunderstood what we were talking about. It was almost funny, our attempts to keep the lesson going so we could get home on time, but being sidetracked by her random comments about us and what we were teaching and then A replying and commenting on them too. For example, we went to the teach fasting, and she just couldn't understand why we didn't want anything to drink, so she kept asking over and over if she could get us something and then insisting that we needed to eat. I wish I could better describe it, but the long and short of it is that we got home really late, but they invited us back to eat food :)
On Sunday we took our recent new convert (R) to meet a lawyer who is an inactive member of the church and, frankly, isn't living the commandments. R needs help with his application to stay in Sweden and specifically needs a lawyer, and this man was the only way we could think of to be of assistance. He was willing to see him and gave him some good advice, helped him to understand the situation better, but we had to do some serious damage control afterwards. Basically, honesty. Always honesty. Something else that is very common here is for people to find a sambo, or live-in girlfriend, so they can stay. It's like getting married to get a green card in the US. We had to discourage that one too.
We had a really sad teach with a guy who is a member but has lost his faith and isn't really willing to take the steps to get it back again. He's willing to keep meeting, but isn't really planning on doing anything on his own until the desire hits him again.
Well, I'm off. Thanks for all your letters and prayers. Love you all!
Syster M
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Week 26
Subject: Baptism Week
Hello everyone,
Still here. This was an interesting week. We took a lot of long bus rides through the grey countryside. We only got soaked once though. The highlight was the fact that the fields are really green from all the rain and we saw a few late blooming lupines and lavender. The weather has taken to being a little warmer this week when it's not raining. We're back to wearing tights though. It's just too cold now for footies. Yesterday was beautiful. The air was just slightly crisp and smells like apples. There are apples everywhere. It seems like everyone (who has a house) has an apple tree and rotting apples litter their yards. We've had quite a few dinners with the members this week and almost all of them gave us a bag up apples to take home. We are rolling in fruit! I also discovered last week that the brown paper bags under the sink are for compost. No more burying my own compost in the back yard! There is a little place to put it next to the garbage depository. It's so convenient. Oh, we finally bought some bulbs which we'll be planting in the back yard. We've decided it's symbolic for not seeing the fruits of all our labors here in Örebro since neither of us will still be here when they come up (I hope--that would be a long time here!)
The big news this week was that R got baptized. His was the second baptism I've attended since I've been here. He also was denied his asylum seeking status and was said that he had two months until he had to leave Sweden. He's going to appeal and we hope the best for him. It was really hard to hear. He's so humble and good we hope the Lord will guide him to the place where he can feel settled and build a new life. AW, his roommate and the one who introduced him to the church when he was baptized a couple months ago, got his approval to start language classes. It looks like he'll probably be able to stay then. The baptism itself was lovely. We had it right after church, so many from the ward stayed. Sis R and I sang, but it was only ok because I got nervous as usual. We only had a slight glitch in that R's pants were too big. They couldn't find any belts, so they held them up with a tie :) He's very shy, but he got up and said a few words afterwards. He just thanked everybody and said that he would never forget this day. It was very sweet. Sadly, they all had to run and catch the bus right after, but we snuck some cakes into a bag for them. D is getting baptized next month, and the baptism made him really excited about it. Hopefully having all three of them come into the church around the same time will help them keep coming. We made apple pie and apple cake for the baptism. The apple cake called for 4 cups of grated apple, so we got rid of all the nasty ones :) I also had orange fingers the rest of the day.
Now for the rest of the story... We went to Nora again and the ice cream place is closed for the season!!! We had no idea how much of a tender mercy our getting the ice cream that one time was.
Sis R is going home in like 10 days now and she's trying really hard just to stay with it. I think she's doing great, but the district leader and his companion think it's funny to try to get her trunky. I think it just makes us all feel bad. Well, gots to go. I love what I'm doing and you all are in my prayers!
Love,
Sys Maxwell
Hello everyone,
Still here. This was an interesting week. We took a lot of long bus rides through the grey countryside. We only got soaked once though. The highlight was the fact that the fields are really green from all the rain and we saw a few late blooming lupines and lavender. The weather has taken to being a little warmer this week when it's not raining. We're back to wearing tights though. It's just too cold now for footies. Yesterday was beautiful. The air was just slightly crisp and smells like apples. There are apples everywhere. It seems like everyone (who has a house) has an apple tree and rotting apples litter their yards. We've had quite a few dinners with the members this week and almost all of them gave us a bag up apples to take home. We are rolling in fruit! I also discovered last week that the brown paper bags under the sink are for compost. No more burying my own compost in the back yard! There is a little place to put it next to the garbage depository. It's so convenient. Oh, we finally bought some bulbs which we'll be planting in the back yard. We've decided it's symbolic for not seeing the fruits of all our labors here in Örebro since neither of us will still be here when they come up (I hope--that would be a long time here!)
The big news this week was that R got baptized. His was the second baptism I've attended since I've been here. He also was denied his asylum seeking status and was said that he had two months until he had to leave Sweden. He's going to appeal and we hope the best for him. It was really hard to hear. He's so humble and good we hope the Lord will guide him to the place where he can feel settled and build a new life. AW, his roommate and the one who introduced him to the church when he was baptized a couple months ago, got his approval to start language classes. It looks like he'll probably be able to stay then. The baptism itself was lovely. We had it right after church, so many from the ward stayed. Sis R and I sang, but it was only ok because I got nervous as usual. We only had a slight glitch in that R's pants were too big. They couldn't find any belts, so they held them up with a tie :) He's very shy, but he got up and said a few words afterwards. He just thanked everybody and said that he would never forget this day. It was very sweet. Sadly, they all had to run and catch the bus right after, but we snuck some cakes into a bag for them. D is getting baptized next month, and the baptism made him really excited about it. Hopefully having all three of them come into the church around the same time will help them keep coming. We made apple pie and apple cake for the baptism. The apple cake called for 4 cups of grated apple, so we got rid of all the nasty ones :) I also had orange fingers the rest of the day.
Now for the rest of the story... We went to Nora again and the ice cream place is closed for the season!!! We had no idea how much of a tender mercy our getting the ice cream that one time was.
Sis R is going home in like 10 days now and she's trying really hard just to stay with it. I think she's doing great, but the district leader and his companion think it's funny to try to get her trunky. I think it just makes us all feel bad. Well, gots to go. I love what I'm doing and you all are in my prayers!
Love,
Sys Maxwell
Monday, September 13, 2010
Week 25
Subject: I dry vegetables on the dish rack
Hello all!
So, this week has been fantastic! Or, at least interesting. I was feeling quite distraught about the weather in August and the season quickly turning to the dark side, but the words of an older ward member a couple weeks ago were prophetic. He said that sometimes in September there is a short 'second summer'. Ta da! It's been lovely this week! We're still holding out on the nylons as long as possible.
So, on to the week. On Tuesday, we got up early to be out the door by 6:30 to catch a 6:55 train to Stockholm for Zone Conference. We got everything ready the night before and were out the door by 6:35. Sis Robinson stopped dead in her tracks just staring at the bikes. We were in a hurry so I pushed her a little and said, "Come on! What are you waiting for?" "Look!" she said, pointing in the direction of the bike rack. I looked, and there was only one bike. We went and checked it out and found that someone has cut the wire. Oh the irony. I had been so careful about locking the bike securely. Sis Robinson thought I was paranoid at first. Nope. They didn't take my bike probably because it's not a very good bike and the back tire was locked. We quickly ran through our options. Couldn't take the bus, we'd missed it. We decided to just both go on the one bike. We grabbed another lock from inside and started off with 15 minutes to make it to the train station with a double loaded bike. I drove and Sis Robinson sat on the back trying not to let her feet drag. We get stared at a lot on any normal day, but today, everyone that passed us did a double take. We were crawling along two grown women, helmets on, in suits and tights, sweat streaming down my face, and can't forget the name tags. Needless to say, we didn't make the train. We got to the station, mascara all over my face, and 10 minutes too late. We talked to the lady at the desk and our only options were to take the really expensive, fast train, or to wait and hour and 15 minutes. Pres. Anderson asked if we could just come tomorrow to Stockholm South's zone conference. We decided to just wait for the next train because we had a lot of appointments the next day and this was Sis Robinson's last conference. We had prayed for a miracle, but thought it hadn't come. We had been on the train 15 minutes when we got a phone call from the district leader. The power in the Gubbangen chapel was out, no explanation, so we would be holding the conference in the institute in Stockholm which cut 30 minutes off our trip, and allowed us to get there just in time. Wonderful! We got sis Robinson's brand new, shiny bike yesterday. Our saintly mission leader bought it and had his son put it together. Yay!
We bought a plant today. If I get transferred in a few weeks, I'm taking it with me. It will be my friend during the winter. We also have been trying to germinate avocado seeds. They germinate rather slowly, but they are making progress. I think I'll take those too.
Sis Robinson and I were discussing the quirks of having a companion and how you have to adjust to each person's peculiarities each time you work with someone new. She leaves the bathroom cabinet door open all the time. I don't like to step onto a wet bathmat (Brian's fault--he doesn't like it either). Sis Robinson had a companion that demanded that the toilet seat be left down. She said that after that transfer, she missed putting the toilet seat down. Today, I put a carrot in the dish rack to dry after rinsing it. Sis Robinson said when she saw it later, "What's that carrot doing in the dish rack!?" I said, "Drying off. What do you think?" That was very strange to her. I didn't think it was so strange. Things like that. It's like getting married every two months. Or so I've heard. I'm not sure if Elder's really deal with that or not because I have shopped and cooked with each of my companions as well. Also interesting.
Anyway, yesterday was amazing. We've had almost no one come to church all transfer. We had 10 non-members come in and out of church yesterday. Some were there the last half, some only the first half, but they all came! It was crazy. We had a lady with her two kids come yesterday. Everyone was really excited about that, but we aren't sure if she'll come back or not. She goes to the Syrian orthodox church, so our church was rather strange to her. She's great though!
Well, I am trying to keep Sis Robinson's head on. She goes home in 3 weeks and is starting to get tired. She says she's losing her mind. That might be true. She never knows what I'm talking about. But she's not trunky, just crazy.
Let me conclude by saying the Lord is mindful of His missionaries. We see miracles (though usually small) every day. I love you all! Thanks for your prayers and support.
Love,
Syster M
Syster Birthday Princess
Hello all!
So, this week has been fantastic! Or, at least interesting. I was feeling quite distraught about the weather in August and the season quickly turning to the dark side, but the words of an older ward member a couple weeks ago were prophetic. He said that sometimes in September there is a short 'second summer'. Ta da! It's been lovely this week! We're still holding out on the nylons as long as possible.
So, on to the week. On Tuesday, we got up early to be out the door by 6:30 to catch a 6:55 train to Stockholm for Zone Conference. We got everything ready the night before and were out the door by 6:35. Sis Robinson stopped dead in her tracks just staring at the bikes. We were in a hurry so I pushed her a little and said, "Come on! What are you waiting for?" "Look!" she said, pointing in the direction of the bike rack. I looked, and there was only one bike. We went and checked it out and found that someone has cut the wire. Oh the irony. I had been so careful about locking the bike securely. Sis Robinson thought I was paranoid at first. Nope. They didn't take my bike probably because it's not a very good bike and the back tire was locked. We quickly ran through our options. Couldn't take the bus, we'd missed it. We decided to just both go on the one bike. We grabbed another lock from inside and started off with 15 minutes to make it to the train station with a double loaded bike. I drove and Sis Robinson sat on the back trying not to let her feet drag. We get stared at a lot on any normal day, but today, everyone that passed us did a double take. We were crawling along two grown women, helmets on, in suits and tights, sweat streaming down my face, and can't forget the name tags. Needless to say, we didn't make the train. We got to the station, mascara all over my face, and 10 minutes too late. We talked to the lady at the desk and our only options were to take the really expensive, fast train, or to wait and hour and 15 minutes. Pres. Anderson asked if we could just come tomorrow to Stockholm South's zone conference. We decided to just wait for the next train because we had a lot of appointments the next day and this was Sis Robinson's last conference. We had prayed for a miracle, but thought it hadn't come. We had been on the train 15 minutes when we got a phone call from the district leader. The power in the Gubbangen chapel was out, no explanation, so we would be holding the conference in the institute in Stockholm which cut 30 minutes off our trip, and allowed us to get there just in time. Wonderful! We got sis Robinson's brand new, shiny bike yesterday. Our saintly mission leader bought it and had his son put it together. Yay!
We bought a plant today. If I get transferred in a few weeks, I'm taking it with me. It will be my friend during the winter. We also have been trying to germinate avocado seeds. They germinate rather slowly, but they are making progress. I think I'll take those too.
Sis Robinson and I were discussing the quirks of having a companion and how you have to adjust to each person's peculiarities each time you work with someone new. She leaves the bathroom cabinet door open all the time. I don't like to step onto a wet bathmat (Brian's fault--he doesn't like it either). Sis Robinson had a companion that demanded that the toilet seat be left down. She said that after that transfer, she missed putting the toilet seat down. Today, I put a carrot in the dish rack to dry after rinsing it. Sis Robinson said when she saw it later, "What's that carrot doing in the dish rack!?" I said, "Drying off. What do you think?" That was very strange to her. I didn't think it was so strange. Things like that. It's like getting married every two months. Or so I've heard. I'm not sure if Elder's really deal with that or not because I have shopped and cooked with each of my companions as well. Also interesting.
Anyway, yesterday was amazing. We've had almost no one come to church all transfer. We had 10 non-members come in and out of church yesterday. Some were there the last half, some only the first half, but they all came! It was crazy. We had a lady with her two kids come yesterday. Everyone was really excited about that, but we aren't sure if she'll come back or not. She goes to the Syrian orthodox church, so our church was rather strange to her. She's great though!
Well, I am trying to keep Sis Robinson's head on. She goes home in 3 weeks and is starting to get tired. She says she's losing her mind. That might be true. She never knows what I'm talking about. But she's not trunky, just crazy.
Let me conclude by saying the Lord is mindful of His missionaries. We see miracles (though usually small) every day. I love you all! Thanks for your prayers and support.
Love,
Syster M
Syster Birthday Princess
Monday, September 6, 2010
Week 24
Subject: Blackmailed!
Hejsan allihopa!
So it's been a big week this week. Mother, I'm going to be making big tortellini soup this week. I'm very excited. I was even more excited when, after looking for sausage a couple of weeks ago and finding the selection slim by the deli meats, we found the real sausage/hot dog section this week! It was beautiful!
On Tuesday we went to a little tourist town, which according to Lonely Planet, was supposed to charm the pants off us. We had an appointment with a friend of the man who is getting baptized in a couple of weeks. When we got there, he wasn't at the library, and his phone was busy. We had an hour until our bus left, so we made phone calls. About the time we had to go, a man I recognized as a visitor in church last week came up to us and said, "I have a picture I'm going to send to your mission president unless you give me $50...Blackmail, an American tradition! Are you supposed to be here?" Busted! We were supposed to be there, but it looked rather suspicious, us sitting in the sun by the quaint plaza. We explained, he and his family bought us ice cream, and then we had to run to the bus. They were really nice, and I hope they don't think we were slacking. It was fantastic ice cream. If you are ever in Nora, get the ice cream!
We had a fun little miracle on Wednesday. We went to Storå to teach our investigator with the baptismal date. It was rainy and cold and the library was unfortunately closed. We were sitting waiting for him to come when a man passed by us and said, "Hello! Praise the Lord!" He stopped to talk to us and said he is from India and was a preacher, but had to leave because his life was in danger. He preached a little too much for some people's liking. Or maybe it was what he preached. We don't know. He then told us that he had gotten baptized into our church a year ago. We will be getting a Hindi Book of Mormon this week, so we'll be able to take it to him. We were happy he found us.
This week I also agreed to buy a sewing machine from a man we taught a first lesson to. Oops. Turns out just nodding and saying ok to everything you don't quite understand is not always a good idea. Otherwise, the language is going well. I still have a horrendous accent, but most missionaries do.
Anyway, the rest of the week was filled with teaches with lots of great people, crazy train schedules, and trying to pack everything into 4 days. We went to Stockholm on Friday evening for preparation for our meetings with Elder Nelson and the area presidency the next day. We got to the mission home a little after 9 and found out that Elder Nelson had just left at 8:30ish. He'd been there to have dinner. Just missed him! We got to meet him the next day, though. I also got to meet Elder Kopischke who served with Dad in the office in Germany on his mission. That was fun! We took a picture. The missionary meeting was awesome, and the conference the next day was great! Also, spending the evenings at the mission home and with Sister Anderson was really fun and we went on splits in Uppsala with the sisters serving there. We have sharpening tomorrow, so we are going back to Stockholm bright and early. Mixed feelings on that one. Anyway, the church is true. This is the Lord's work, and I am happy to be on His errand. Have a great week!
Love you all,
Amy
Hejsan allihopa!
So it's been a big week this week. Mother, I'm going to be making big tortellini soup this week. I'm very excited. I was even more excited when, after looking for sausage a couple of weeks ago and finding the selection slim by the deli meats, we found the real sausage/hot dog section this week! It was beautiful!
On Tuesday we went to a little tourist town, which according to Lonely Planet, was supposed to charm the pants off us. We had an appointment with a friend of the man who is getting baptized in a couple of weeks. When we got there, he wasn't at the library, and his phone was busy. We had an hour until our bus left, so we made phone calls. About the time we had to go, a man I recognized as a visitor in church last week came up to us and said, "I have a picture I'm going to send to your mission president unless you give me $50...Blackmail, an American tradition! Are you supposed to be here?" Busted! We were supposed to be there, but it looked rather suspicious, us sitting in the sun by the quaint plaza. We explained, he and his family bought us ice cream, and then we had to run to the bus. They were really nice, and I hope they don't think we were slacking. It was fantastic ice cream. If you are ever in Nora, get the ice cream!
We had a fun little miracle on Wednesday. We went to Storå to teach our investigator with the baptismal date. It was rainy and cold and the library was unfortunately closed. We were sitting waiting for him to come when a man passed by us and said, "Hello! Praise the Lord!" He stopped to talk to us and said he is from India and was a preacher, but had to leave because his life was in danger. He preached a little too much for some people's liking. Or maybe it was what he preached. We don't know. He then told us that he had gotten baptized into our church a year ago. We will be getting a Hindi Book of Mormon this week, so we'll be able to take it to him. We were happy he found us.
This week I also agreed to buy a sewing machine from a man we taught a first lesson to. Oops. Turns out just nodding and saying ok to everything you don't quite understand is not always a good idea. Otherwise, the language is going well. I still have a horrendous accent, but most missionaries do.
Anyway, the rest of the week was filled with teaches with lots of great people, crazy train schedules, and trying to pack everything into 4 days. We went to Stockholm on Friday evening for preparation for our meetings with Elder Nelson and the area presidency the next day. We got to the mission home a little after 9 and found out that Elder Nelson had just left at 8:30ish. He'd been there to have dinner. Just missed him! We got to meet him the next day, though. I also got to meet Elder Kopischke who served with Dad in the office in Germany on his mission. That was fun! We took a picture. The missionary meeting was awesome, and the conference the next day was great! Also, spending the evenings at the mission home and with Sister Anderson was really fun and we went on splits in Uppsala with the sisters serving there. We have sharpening tomorrow, so we are going back to Stockholm bright and early. Mixed feelings on that one. Anyway, the church is true. This is the Lord's work, and I am happy to be on His errand. Have a great week!
Love you all,
Amy
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