Week 35

Subject: Well, I’m still here.

Hello everyone!

I like my mission. It's nice. I came to that conclusion this week. It gets dark now by 4 pm. And isn't fully light until after 8 sometime. It's hard to tell because it's been cloudy the whole week. It's been snowing again. I was surprised when Dad said you all are still enjoying the fall colors. At least the people in Utah understand. This week we woke up one morning and the air was thick with frozen mist. I guess it's comparable to being in a freezer. Over the course of the morning, everything grew icy, spikey hair. It was crazy! The bikes even looked like they'd turned punk. There were little spikes all over the seats, handle bars, and wheels. I've never seen anything like it before. Sis Porkka thought it was really cool and rare as well, so that's saying something. Most winter things are ho hum for her.

Anyway, this has been a good week. We had sharpening on Tuesday, which was fun. Sis Porkka finally got her birthday packages, so she knows her mother loves her after all and Elder Shear got a 30 lb Christmas package. He started opening his Christmas presents right there. I think he would have eaten the marshmallow (that's a reference to Elder Uchtdorf's Continue in Patience talk).

On Wednesday we met with JC, the one who got baptized in March, and reconfirmed that he doesn't have a testimony of the restored gospel. At all. I kept wanting to ask him why he got baptized, but I already knew the answer. The sisters who found him were both very pretty and he's proposed to a lot of the sisters who have been here. We've escaped the topic until now, but he asked us at the end of the lesson what we are looking for in a man. We both emphasized being a good priesthood holder and having a testimony. I wish he would just understand that if he followed what we taught him, he'd be someone a good Mormon girl would want to marry. Sigh.

On Thursday we told A we weren't going to meet with him anymore, but he's very welcome to come to activities and such. He didn't seem so broken up about it, surprisingly.

On Friday we went up to the middle of nowhere to visit R and Al. Then we had to walk back. Al came with us, so it was enjoyable, but took an hour to get to civilization again. Never again.

On Saturday we had 7 people at our Swedish class!! Hooray! They are all from Pakistan and so very nice. The next day was Stake Conference, so we went that night and stayed at the mission home because there are no trains in the morning. It was lovely to sit around and talk with President and Sister Anderson and the Rasmussens, a new older couple who just got here. Stake Conference was nice. We sang in the choir. On the way back we got a ride with the Keanns. A half American family who drive their RV around to such events. They are fascinating to me. I've never met anyone like Brother Keann. I'm sure other people in his situation exist, but I just don't know. It's fascinating because he's American. His wife understands and can speak English. His children can speak English, but they speak Swedish at home. He speaks only Swedish to us. He just seems Swedish now. This probably betrays how terribly...um...something I am, but I would just have assumed they would make English their lingua franca. I don't know. It's not a big deal, but I just think it's interesting.

Anyway, after that we visited B about an hour out of Örebro and missed our bus because of the Latvian-Estonian-German-Russian 77 year old man who talked nonstop for an hour. He kept making lewd comments I didn't understand, so I had to be careful what I smiled and nodded about. He was there with his Finnish wife who can barely walk and seemed to be in pain and on the verge of tears the whole time. He was talking the whole time about his wives over the years and his escapades as a sailor. Sis Porkka described the whole experience as being in a Russian novel or a Samuel Beckett play and was existentialism embodied. Especially missing the bus. The next one came two hours later, so we went back to B's and ended up talking about why she left the church, her desires to come back, her illnesses and her fear of water. It turned out ok.

Well, another P-day almost over. I tried fixing my suitcase this morning. It might work, but I'm in the process of failing at the moment. I'll let you know how it went. This letter is always too long! I hope you all have a great week. Happy Thanksgiving! The church is true.

Syster Maxwell

Week 34

Subject: Boots!

Hey all,

So, I've just spent 40 minutes trying to get grad school stuff organized, so I'll keep this brief. It's strange to have to think about things like "cover letter", "writing sample", and "resume". Ick!!! That's why I came on a mission--to get away from all that! Just kidding. I came because I had nothing better to do. Oh, no, it was because that's what the Lord wanted me to do and I have a testimony. That's right... I'm such a missionary. I can't believe it. :D

Well, the most exciting thing that happened this week was probably getting a decimeter of snow this week. All on Tuesday. During the day. Luckily I wore my boots (I found them in the apartment. They are warm and woolly and wonderful!), but we had sadly decided on biking. We couldn't ride home because the pelting snow made it impossible for Sis Porkka to see (she wears glasses) and difficult for either of us to want to keep going. I rode around a little and had fun slipping in the snow, but mostly we just walked the whole way home from downtown. I think the best part was going into a few Pressbyråns looking to buy a bus card. The first ones didn't have the ones we needed, but we finally got them at the last one. We laughed about the two drenched, mascara smeared missionaries walking into the store carrying bike helmets to buy bus cards. I had mascara all over my face the whole day. Learned me a lesson! Go with the water-proof in the winter.

On Wednesday we had a teach with our new investigator who is schizophrenic. She is really sweet and doing really well right now, but we are not quite sure how to help her understand that the founding of our church didn't happen because of a scheme by aliens. It's a work in progress, and we are taking it slow.

Also, on Saturday, we finally had two guys show up to Swedish class who aren't members and are planning on coming regularly! We had given up hope and were unlocking our bikes to leave when they came walking up and said, "are we in the right place for Swedish class?" Yay! They are from Pakistan and are really nice. I hope they come back!

Anyway, it's been a good week other than losing most of Tuesday to the snow. I don't have any money on my card because I used it all to pay for the bus card. We're hoping the advance (little late now) comes in soon! Sorry, not important for you all to know. I've been reading in Our Heritage this week. It's like a condensed version of The Work and the Glory. Or rather...the Joseph Smith movie. Or maybe history. But the examples of the early saints are really inspiring and it's been enjoyable. Have a great week!

Love,

Syster Maxwell

Week 33

Subject: Sick and tired of being sick and tired…

Hi!

So, the weather warmed up a bit early last week and the temperatures got up to about 10C every day, but we're back to a cold snap. It was -12 degrees Celsius this morning and the frost was still thick at noon. It's amazing! It's November! We were looking at a globe yesterday with a few new members at a family´s house yesterday. I was amazed at how high up Sweden was. I'm on top of the world! Ok, that's terrible...But, it's good to look at a globe every now and then so you can remember how ridiculously out of proportion maps on paper are. Speaking of terrible, my friend, Reid, told me once that I would listen to and enjoy EFY-type music because that's all you've got. I never thought it possible. My fears became reality this week when listening to Michael McLean's song, 'Sick and Tired' from his Mission2BeHappy CD (it's on a sampler we have in the apartment), a rock-a-billy tribute to feeling old and out of shape, and actually thinking to myself, 'Ok, maybe this is alright. It's kind of catchy...' Oh dear. I blame Sis Porkka.

Anyway, this week was long. I don't feel like we did very much. We are going down in people we teach, but can't seem to fill in the gaps yet. We've also been spending a lot of time with A, who still doesn't want to be baptized, but basically wants to be a missionary. We've tried to explain to him he's too old, not baptized, and doesn't even believe in our message... It's very strange. He wants to do something, but won't even come to church! We're going to have to have a serious DTR (define the relationship) this week.

Yesterday was Sis Porkka's birthday, so I made her a freezer cheesecake. She wanted regular cheesecake, but I didn't get the recipe until yesterday. So I'll have to make that some other time. I made her a big sign out of an old sheet which also doubles as a door to our closet now. Door for your birthday! She was excited :) And we put up Christmas lights. It was great :) We then had a surprise dinner with the Svenssons after church and it was lovely. We sang to her in three languages, English, Swedish and Finnish because their son served a mission in Finnish and taught us all. We finished off the day tracting. Hooray!

Well, the elders are here, and we have to go roast sausages over a fire :) We got up this morning and collected wood from the woods and took it back to apartment to melt and dry off. Actually, we took it from huge piles of wood by our apartment building that have been there since I got here. Probably for public use, right? I've heard so many stories from Elders about them getting yelled at for doing un-socially acceptable things that I expected someone to come out of no where and give us a hard time. Nope! It was great. I'll tell you how it went next week if I remember :) Oh! RR set a baptismal date! She is absolutely fantastic!!! Have a great week everyone! Love you all.

Syster Maxwell

Week 32

Subject: Up an hour of sleep and feeling great!

Hejsan,

Nothing funny happened this week, but it was an ok week as far as I remember. We've started trying to take A to families' houses so he can actually feel the Spirit. Last week was wonderful. We took him to Family Home Evening at the Svenssons last minute and it was fantastic. We actually invited him to come before we had anyone lined up to host us, so we were kind of nervous about the whole thing. We finally got a hold of Brother Svensson at about 5:30 and A was already on his way towards the church. I kept thinking about mom's story about grandpa and not being able to sleep over because she didn't ask him first. But, the only problem we had was we had told him an hour earlier than they would be ready for us, so we went to eat something before. He paid for us and it felt oddly like a date. FHE was great though and he was really impressed by their family and actually stayed longer than half an hour :)

On Tuesday we had zone conference. It was marvelous. I sliced 6 bell peppers and my team won General Conference Jeopardy :) Pres Anderson ok'd applying to grad school, so I'll try to get that done as soon as I can.

Wednesday was a good day, but left a bad taste in our mouths. Thursday was also kind of blah, but we had a couple of teaches and got the Swedish Class flyers in Swedish done and printed out. Now we just have to get people to come.

Friday was just fine. We had a teach with H from Nigeria who also came to church yesterday. He's really interested but feels too nervous to study the Book of Mormon. He's trying to learn Swedish and has been waiting a year to receive a response about his status in the country. He hasn't heard anything yet.

On Saturday we went to Arboga to meet the member from El Salvador who, turns out, is running away from gang violence that she accidently and innocently got swept up in. She was so active in the church back home and had her mission papers all done except for the medical part. There are a couple of nurses in the ward here that we hope can help with that, but the bishop isn't sure about sending her out from here. She probably could leave from El Salvador if she just went for a weekend and then left again. Right now she is just sitting at home during the day doing nothing. We thought it would be so fun to have her come and stay with us for awhile and be like our full time ward missionary. Only problem is she only speaks Spanish, but we could teach her Swedish or English real fast...maybe :)

Yesterday we went to an awkward dinner with 4 young adults at one of their parents’ house. The mom is no longer a member of the Church and two of his sisters who aren't members anymore either came with a boyfriend. They were all lovely people, but we got stuck there longer than we'd planned and really had nothing to say to anyone except the mom who is studying Somalian and loves foreign grammar. I told her a little about K'iche' and that was the extent of my contribution to any conversation except to confirm or deny details about American culture. It was Halloween yesterday and they don't really celebrate it here, but there are some that have tried to get it going. They have parties and some kids try trick or treating. It was so funny to hear them tell about trying to explain to people what they were doing! They would say trick or treat (in Swedish) and no one would get it. "What do you all want?" They said that one guy actually said trick and so they pulled a tame trick on him and he got mad. Anyway, you had to be there, but it was funny.

Also, there is a missionary from Örebro going to the Pocatello, ID mission next week if he gets his visa. I wasn't sure if the Lee's actually live in that mission or not, but I gave him their info just in case. If you meet an Elder Edvinsson, take good care of him! He's really cool and reminds me a little of Brian. I think it's his hair (think pre-mission). Also, there is an Elder Lindquist who is in the MTC right now and will be in the Salt Lake City mission. Again, I have no idea what that entails as far as boundaries go, but if any of you Salt Lake people happen to see him ever, tell him hi and that he's awesome!

Anyway, that's the news. I'm working on patience this week. Turns out I still don't have any. Sigh. Daylight savings ended this week (or rather summer time), so it's dark at 5 now. We are looking forward to Guy Fawkes Day and Sis Porkka's birthday this week. We'll probably have to burn something. It's tradition! (Not in Sweden...)

Love you all!
Syster Maxwell