Week 31

Subject: Chocolate Croissants Make Any Day Better

Hello family,

The weather is good today. Sunny and chilly. It snowed twice this week. Once on Thursday night and on Sunday morning, but the snow all melted by the end of the day. The ground and roads have a layer of icy frost every morning and Sis Porkka is starting to complain that it's getting too slippery for us to be riding bikes still, but I'm holding firm. I'm not ready to give up the bikes. Not until the snow really comes.

This week we broke up with the 7th day Adventists. They said it's been nice, but our beliefs are just too different. Oh well. It was mutual at least. He plays the mandolin and let me play twinkle twinkle little star on it.   :)   Thanks mom!

I also went to IKEA for the first time ever this week. It was very exciting. We got the 16 SEK plate of potatoes and meatballs with a member who took us to a teach. It was everything I'd ever dreamed of.

It's been really interesting being able to watch the immigration process from this end. We found out that one of our recent converts got a negative response to his application last week. He was kicked out of Swedish classes, but is still looking for work. He had approval for that before, but we can't tell if he still has approval for that or not. He won't really tell us. All he said was that he was going to be doing this whole thing a different way. He'd look for work and then be able to apply again in 4 years. But, without Swedish, he won't be able to get a job very easily, so we'll see how that goes down.

We had a few first lessons with people this week--one with a Swedish lady who has had a number of run ins with spirits and things which has made her feel crazy. We tried to assure her that there are other things that exist out there (things unseen), so she doesn't need to be so worried and instead accept the gospel :) That probably sounds weird, but I guess you had to be there. We also had a first lesson in Spanish with a girl who really didn't know why we were coming. She's from El Salvador. We've had so many run ins with people from El Salvador in the past couple of weeks it's starting to seem like it's not a coincidence. It makes me thing of Gerhardt and how we are all working together as missionaries. It doesn't matter if you are in Sweden or El Salvador. It's all connected.

We also had a really cool teach with A, the one trying to quit snus, at the bishop's house. We watched the restoration and he said that he believed that it happened and it just went straight to his heart. We explained that was the Holy Ghost and tried to get him to see that since he believed it was true he should do something about it. He didn't get it (coughbaptismcough). Guess we should have been more clear. Whoops! I'm still working on that.

On Thursday we missed two trains and a bus. One was my fault, the other was Sis Porkka's, so we're even. Not such a happy day except for a chocolate croissant and Pizza Hut.

Friday and the weekend were lovely! On Friday we had a teach with D and got him ready for his baptism. Then we had a teach with E, a recent convert who is having a really hard time right now, but is hanging onto the gospel as much as he can. He is from Sierra Leone and has been a great friend to the Africans that have been getting baptized. We asked him to baptize D last Sunday and he was so honored! And the teach on Friday was so sweet! The Spirit was so strong as he bore testimony that he felt worthy and ready to perform the ordinance and was still so honored. I can't really do it justice to describe how wonderful it was to be there and then to see them both in white. It was a beautiful baptism and he did a great job. Everyone thought it was great.

Sunday went well too and I baked bread for an investigator who basically said, don't call me, I'll call you, but I like her as a friend, so I wasn't willing to accept that :) The bread was an experiment, but it turned out nicely. We attached a nice note and an excerpt from the last general relief society meeting. Hope she liked it!

Well, I think that's it. I found out this week that it's tradition to eat pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays in Sweden.

Have a good week!

Syster Maxwell